India’s fading cricket story

As Mahendra Singh Dhoni gets ready to lead India today in yet another ODI series it is time to examine his real legacy and ask if he can be regarded as the best ever Indian skipper of all time. If the discussion is restricted to the shorter formats of the game, the answer is a resounding yes.

With victories in the World T-20 in South Africa in 2007, the 2011 World Cup at home and in the Champions Trophy in England in 2013, Dhoni has been the cornerstone of India’s successes in cricket’s shorter formats as captain. So much so that even a failed title defence in World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand wouldn’t impact his legacy by much. His own performances in ODI cricket are such that not many will hesitate in calling him one of the best finishers of all time.

When it comes to Test cricket, however, the assessment changes dramatically. With Dhoni just two defeats away from the ignominious record of becoming the most defeated Test skipper overseas, it is pertinent to suggest that under him Indian Test cricket overseas has gone from bad to worse.

More important than the defeats themselves is the manner in which India has lost some of the matches. In 2011 in England India managed to score 300 just once in eight Test innings. In Australia in 2012 the team was bundled out in Perth twice in under three days. And in the current series in Eng-land, India has been bowled out for under 200 in five consecutive innings. In four consecutive innings, the top order’s best performance amounted to a measly 66-6. And when India hasn’t crossed 150, Dhoni’s team has conceded 350-plus every time the opposition has batted. England got 500-plus in Southampton, 350-plus at Manchester and close to 500 at the Oval exposing India’s plight.

To add to the batting and bowling woes, India doesn’t seem to have a slip cordon in place with catches going down in every Test match. Problems have been compounded by some of the decisions Dhoni has taken as captain. As former England skipper Nasser Hussain put it, “There’s the usual way and then there’s the Dhoni way.”

Unfortunately for Dhoni, it isn’t working anymore. Playing six batsmen at Southampton after winning with five on a green top at Lord’s was surprising. To bat first at Manchester on a pitch full of moisture was an act of false bravado. Dhoni standing back to Ravindra Jadeja’s slow bowling has already become a subject of much ridicule in England. Some of his field placements against the English were termed “unpardonable” by former India skipper Sourav Ganguly.

Despite employing defensive fields India conceded almost 200 runs in the last 20 overs of the England innings at the Oval, something Dhoni will find hard to forget. And in the final innings of the series India collapsed for 94 on a decent batting pitch.

With series losses in Eng-land, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa behind him, Dhoni will face his sternest test versus Australia in three months. Australia, with one of the best fast bowling attacks in the world, will pose serious questions for India’s batsmen just before the 2015 World Cup. Two more defeats in the four-Test series and Dhoni will have lost 16 overseas matches, the most by any skipper.

Can someone who has lost 13 of the last 16 Test matches he has played overseas be termed India’s best ever captain? Compare with Ganguly or even Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble and the contrast becomes evident. After taking over as skipper against Australia at home in 2001, Ganguly’s India drew the series 1-1 against England in England in 2002 and subsequently went on to draw the Test series 1-1 in Australia in 2003-04. With a 1-0 lead in December 2003, the first and only time India has done so, Ganguly’s team should have gone on to win the series at Sydney, having scored 700 runs in their first innings. Thereafter Sourav’s team beat Pakistan in Pakistan for the first time in 50 years.

With regular away wins, Ganguly created a winning habit, which was then passed on to Dravid and Kumble. Under Dravid, India scripted two famous away series wins in the West Indies and England. It was the first time in 35 years that the Indians won a series in the West Indies in 2006 and in the very next year Dravid led India to a 1-0 series win in England for the first time since 1986. Kumble too did well overseas in the brief period he was captain, the high point being the victory at Perth in January 2008.

All of the good work done under Ganguly and thereafter Dravid and Kumble seems to have been undone between 2011 and 2014. Dhoni will have one final crack at redemption in Australia. A series win Down Under, something that has never been achieved before in India’s cricket history, will do much to brighten up his scorecard.

Another series defeat, however, and the mantle of the best would slip forever. A loss in Australia would mean that some might even call Dhoni one of the worst Indian Test skippers overseas. Unfortunately for the man once credited with the Midas touch, he will have to live with it.

The writer is a sports historian.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Author

Boria Majumdar is a leading sport scholar and television commentator. Author of a number of bestselling books on Indian sport, he is an oped columnist for The Times of India and sports expert at Times Now. A Rhodes scholar, Majumdar is adjunct professor, Monash University, and senior research fellow at the University of Central Lancashire.

Boria Majumdar is a leading sport scholar and television commentator. Author of a number of bestselling books on Indian sport, he is an oped columnist for T. . .

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Author

Boria Majumdar is a leading sport scholar and television commentator. Author of a number of bestselling books on Indian sport, he is an oped columnist for The Times of India and sports expert at Times Now. A Rhodes scholar, Majumdar is adjunct professor, Monash University, and senior research fellow at the University of Central Lancashire.

Boria Majumdar is a leading sport scholar and television commentator. Author of a number of bestselling books on Indian sport, he is an oped columnist for T. . .